Q&A: What’s At Stake For China in Sudan?

A Sudanese demonstrator raises a picture bearing a crossed out face of Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, during a rally in front the presidential palace in the capital Khartoum, demanding a return to military rule. AFP

China’s reaction, so far, to Monday’s military coup in Sudan has been reserved, especially compared to the forceful response Beijing issued within 24 hours of last month’s overthrow of President Alpha Condé’s government in Guinea. But China’s interests in Guinea and Sudan are very different and that might explain why Beijing is reluctant to issue the same kind of denunciation of the military that it did of the Conakry coup. Unlike Guinea, which is an important bauxite supplier, Sudan is no longer a key source of oil or other strategic resources for the Chinese.

Today, the challenge for China in Sudan is largely political.

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by Eric Olander

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